The United States produces over 300 GW of power from pulverized coal combustion. This power output, representing about 50 percent of the total annual power output, is responsible for more than 30 percent of annual CO2 emissions in the United States. In order to reduce CO2 emissions from coal combustion, it is desirable to retrofit existing coal-fired power plants with post-combustion capture technology. Currently, amine scrubbing is the technology of choice for post-combustion capture of CO2. However, amine scrubbing technology comes with its challenges and still has not proven to be successful on the scale of carbon capture required for the current coal fleet.
It is against this background that a need arose to develop the nitrogen-permeable membranes and related methods and systems described herein.